Once More, From the Beginning
by Psycho gurl
Summary: ASK was big, way on their way to stardom, and then the actions of one drove them out of the spotlight for good. But Aizawa Taki wasn't always a rock star. Wasn't always sure of himself and his talent, and most certainly was NOT a highschool heart throb.


Disclaimers: Yeah…Gravitation still doesn't belong to me. All these unfinished fanfics, partially, but not Gravitation

Notes: I love ASK, but since there's next to no information on them about 98% of the information in this will come from my own head. The 2% that isn't made up will be things such as their hair colors, their heights, etc, etc.

And no, I've not a clue in the world as to what Ma-kun's real name is, I just thought that after episode seven Mamoru would suit him.

Once More, From the Beginning

Aizawa Taki had never been the most popular boy in high school. One might go so far as to say he was the least popular, but this was not the case. He was unpopular enough to be…well, popular. He came from a small junior high school, and as such most everyone knew who he was. He was the quiet boy in the corner, the one who refused to talk to anybody. Instead he sat completely silent with a piece of paper and a poetry book, writing on it and scribbling things out from time to time. Most times this piece of paper ended up in the trash, but no one cared enough to see what was written upon it. Aizawa Taki was just strange. It was best not to question anything he did.

He was tall for a third year junior high student, but most people doubted he would grow any more. People like Aizawa Taki weren't tall. His black hair was always neat in a way that was far from attractive, and square glasses framed eyes that refused to meet yours. Not the kind of boy to be graced with long, slender legs. He was also younger than them all by a year, due to a string of incidents that was never fully explained.

A few girls tried to approach him, their feminine instincts driving them towards the lonely boy, but their acts had been met with confusion and skeptical glances. They soon decided he wasn't worth the trouble, however, telling him to socialize more and leaving him to himself once again.

Mamoru was an entirely different story, however. His blonde hair and green eyes drew women to him, and he was sociable enough for two people. It was often joked that he could hold a conversation with himself, especially with someone like Ken as his best friend. His looks were distinctly American, as were his friend's, adding to their appeal. He often spoke of America, although he was born in Japan and had only been a few times. His classmates were hooked on his stories, however, listening intently to every word.

Ken was much more quiet and reserved, but with Mamoru at his side he was popular as well. The two of them were opposites, but they were close despite this. His brown hair was short while Mamoru's was long, and he often times wore tinted glasses to hide the shape of his eyes. He was quiet yet sweet, and most people found he was actually a rather interesting person to talk to…after you got him talking. Unlike Mamoru, he had been born in America but didn't speak of it near as much as his friend. As far as he was concerned there was nothing to tell. He worked hard to erase his accent, whereas Mamoru had learned Japanese first and really had no accent to hide in either language.

Mamoru and Ken attended a large junior high school in Tokyo, while Taki attended a smaller junior high not too far away. The two Americans knew nothing of the strange Japanese boy, and he nothing of them. However, fate would have them meeting soon enough…but not until the stressful years of high school had begun.

Mamoru sighed as the bell rang, signaling for class to end. He had been assigned to clean the classroom with Naoko after school that day, after being caught writing notes in class.

Bullshit, in his opinion.

He hadn't written a word, merely read the note that Naoko had given him. It wasn't right to ignore what someone had to say to him, after all. When Mamoru mentioned this to his teacher, however, Amaya-sensei had replied that perhaps he should try not to ignore what his teacher was saying. In his defense, Mamoru had quite simply stated that Amaya-sensei was not a beautiful young woman, and that a woman's heart should be put before all else…even education.

…On second though, perhaps he was staying after for said comment.

"Mamoru, I'm going to head on home, all right?" Ken asked, waiting until the rest of the class had made their way out of the room. He walked over to where his friend was sulking and leaned against his desk. "I'd wait for you, but…" Ken glanced over at the girl standing only a few feet away, staring down at her desk and playing with a pencil there. He was sure Mamoru would like to take this opportunity to meet her. Ken gave up on finishing his sentence, smiling at his friend instead. "I'll see you tomorrow." Mamoru nodded, standing up.

"Yeah, see you," he called as Ken made his way into the halls. The emotion was drained from his voice, but Ken wasn't worried. Mamoru may have been upset at the moment, but a little while with Naoko and he would be fine. You could always count on him to perk up for a cute girl. Ken continued on his way home alone, pushing sunglasses higher on his face as he walked. He felt like he didn't belong here at times, hiding behind sunglasses and a forced Japanese accent.

"I'm sorry I got you into trouble," Naoko blurted out, pausing in her cleaning of the chalkboard. Wide eyes looked over her shoulder at Mamoru a moment before turning back to the task at hand.

"It's not your fault Amaya-sensei isn't a beautiful woman." Naoko laughed.

"No, I suppose it isn't. But, if I hadn't written that letter then you wouldn't be in trouble." Mamoru thought a moment, staring at his reflection in the window.

"I suppose that's true, but it was worth the look on Amaya-sensei's face. It was like he was honestly trying to be angry." Amaya-sensei was actually one of Mamoru's favorite teachers, but Mamoru wasn't the type of boy to pass up an opportunity like the one he'd been given. Unlike a few of his teachers Amaya-sensei had a sense of humor, but he supposed he'd counted too much on it. He also was big on respect, and Mamoru was sure his comment had been considered less than respectful.

"So…" Naoko was almost done with the chalkboard by now, standing on her toes to reach the top. She had volunteered to wash them, determined to get over her short height. She liked the idea of doing things on her own. "What about my letter?" she finally continued, finishing up and dusting off her hands proudly.

"I should be free this Sunday." Mamoru was almost done as well, pressing hard and scraping at a stubborn spot on one of the far windows. "We could meet at the gates around noon. Sound good?" Naoko moved to hover near his elbow, smiling happily.

"Yeah, that sounds good." He nodded to himself before backing up to sit on the desk behind him. He was done with the windows, and they'd already done everything else in an uncomfortable silence. "So that's it?" she asked, looking over the room once. It looked clean to her.

"Yeah, I think that's it." Naoko nodded to herself, the way Mamoru had done earlier, before grabbing her things and heading to the door.

"See you tomorrow, then," she offered in heavily accented English, blushing a little. Mamoru smiled, sliding off the desktop and grabbing his own things.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Naoko smiled happily and bowed before leaving, practically skipping down the halls. Mamoru was happy as well, having now found himself something to do on his free day. Grabbing his things he turned the lights off on his way out the door, closing it behind him in a motion graceful enough to be considered moving art…as far as he was concerned, anyway. Naoko was nowhere in sight but that didn't really matter. He was sure she'd be fine on her own.

"So I'm going to hang out with Ken after school tomorrow, and then Sasaki-chan Friday, and…what was I doing Saturday again?" Mamoru stopped a moment in the halls to think. A few people walked past him, most likely wondering why he was just standing there but not daring to ask. Eventually he set his bag on the ground, kneeling to poke through its contents. Some snacks, his textbooks, a journal or two, a case of pencils, and a small planner rested inside, along with a few crumpled papers and at least two dozen notes, each folded carefully in various shapes and sizes.

The planner was what he was looking for, and after a while his fingers latched onto it, removing it from the pile of crumpled papers it had been hiding in. The halls were deserted now, and quiet except for the faint sound of singing off in the distance. Aha! He was supposed to spend Saturday evening with Kurosawa-san. How he'd forgotten about her he'd never know, but he remembered now and dropped the planner back in its place. He had no more use for it at the moment, anyway.

He closed his bag and picked it up, slinging it over his shoulder as another boy passed him, a little shorter than he was and otherwise preoccupied. A sexy voice made its way past his lips in a tune Mamoru recognized, but couldn't hear. Black headphones covered the smaller boy's ears, and he was sure the song was being played through them and blotting the rest of the world out for his new traveling companion.

The voice didn't match the singer, he thought to himself, walking a few steps behind the singing boy, careful not to catch his attention. The boy was as nerdy as nerds came, but the voice was powerful and sexy. Mamoru got a sudden idea and smiled to himself evilly, inching forward until his face was almost hovering over the other boy's shoulder.

"…Even today I keep on facing the snow, until my song is interrupted." With a sudden jerk Mamoru slid the headphones off the boy's ear, successfully startling him.

"Then I suppose I'll interrupt," he commented once the headphones had been removed from the other's ears. Wide eyes were suddenly turned on him, hair falling out of place to hide a deep brown eye from his view. Hey, he wasn't so bad looking after all. "Did I scare you?" he teased, smiling innocently. His prize dangled from the end of his index finger, still swaying slightly.

"Yeah." Mamoru laughed, surprised at such a straightforward answer. "What?" He'd calmed down by now, sliding glasses back up his nose and staring at Mamoru, confusion written on his face.

"You're interesting, is all," he explained, waving his hands to show that he had meant no harm. "So, what's your name?" he asked as he handed back the headphones he'd stolen.

"Aizawa Taki. Yours?" Taki couldn't figure out for the life of him why this person was talking to him. They were in class together, he knew that much, but he'd never been paid any more attention here than he had been in junior high school. He was used to it, so he didn't really mind it. He wasn't exactly fond of being alone, but it was something he'd learned to live with.

Had his singing really bothered him that much? He supposed it could be considered annoying by some people. Especially when someone like him tried their hand at it. He took his headphones back and waited, hand burying itself in his pocket to turn off his CD. No use wasting batteries, after all.

"Mamoru. Don't bother with the last name, it sounds out of place." The combination of a blatantly American last name and Japanese first name had always bothered him, so he'd taken to just omitting his last name from introductions. "You sing well," he commented, pointing at the headphones as if they had been singing instead of Taki…well he supposed in their own way they had been, but only Taki had heard them.

"Thanks." Taki wasn't used to compliments, or really conversations in general, and as such his replies were short and to the point. The only people he ever really talked to were his parents, but their conversations were never very long, either. Taki blinked as Mamoru dropped his things and hands reached out to mess with his hair. He kept quiet despite his confusion. He supposed he'd figure out what Mamoru was doing sooner or later, so he might as well just let him have his fun for the moment.

"There, much better. You look a lot less creepy this way. Some contacts and you might have to start fighting off the women." Mamoru eyed over his work proudly, crossing his arms as he did so. He'd done the best he could without hair gel or a brush, fighting what gel had already been used.

"I don't think they'll care." People tended to avoid him because he was weird and antisocial, not because he looked dumb. He didn't really care what he looked like either, actually. He just wanted to keep his hair out of his eyes without having to cut it too short.

"Hey, that's the first time you've ever said more than one word in a sentence."

"My name is more than one word." Taki checked his watch, wrapping his headphones back around his neck as he did so.

"Doesn't count." Taki raised an eyebrow before bowing and explaining that he had to start on his way home, turning and making his way back down the hallway.

"And yes it does," he called back over his shoulder. Mamoru laughed, grabbing his things and running to catch up with Taki.

END CHAPTER ONE

Whee! So I decided to make Tachi an old L'Arc-en-Ciel fanboy because…let's face it, that's the only band I could think of that would have a song out back then. Plus, the lyrics to the song worked for me. This would be taking place around what, 1993, right? Tachi's 15 and Ma-kun and Ken-chan are 16. That's all I know.


End file.
